Star Trek: Swiftfire 03: Regression
by The Sisko
Summary: The USS Swiftfire-A and the Fifth Fleet have fallen back to the Guyra System where they are joined by the Klingon Third Battlegroup. But when the Klingons go to battle and all contact is lost they fear the worst.
1. Prologue

**STAR TREK: SWIFTFIRE**

**_Regression_**

(Season 1: Episode 3)

* * *

_Captain's Log: After we abandoned Sector 432 we retreated here, the Guyra system. It is an inhabited system of 5 planets, 2 class N planets, 2 M Class planets and a class J planet. On the smaller of the two M Classes, Guyra III, is a colony of Federation citizens, on the larger planet, Guyra IV, is a planetary Starbase. The Fifth Fleet has been deployed to this sector and surrounding areas. We are marshalling out of the Moon around Guyra IV. The _Swiftfire_ is returning after a routine patrol. We were engaged by a _Galor _class vessel from the Twenty-Third Order; we defeated it but were subsequently engaged by several Jem'Hadar reinforcements. We took damage to the left nacelle, meaning we could not sustain high Warp speeds. Admiral Brand has ordered back to base for repairs, cutting our patrol short by a day._

* * *

"Swiftfire,_ you are clear for docking. Slow down to a quarter impulse and prepare for Tractor Control to guide you into your docking station."_

"Thank you, Moonbase Command. Slowing to a quarter impulse," said Captain Jonathan Masters. The Captain signalled for the flight controller to make the necessary adjustments.

The _Swiftfire_ approached the barren, lifeless moon. The _Swiftfire_ got closer and closer. To an observer it looked like it would smash into the side of the moon. Then an opening appeared. The base wasn't on the moon it was inside the moon. The _Swiftfire_ cruised through the opening and into the cavernous insides. The moon had a huge area hollowed out in a roughly semi-circled shape. In from the rear wall was a large cylindrical spine that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. From that spine jutted out numerous arms that acted as docking platforms.

"It's amazing!" said Commander Susan Core. "I can't believe this is thousands of years old."

This wasn't a human construction or of any other known species. It was dated at over 8,000 years old.

"I know you've been looking into the Moonbase, Lieutenant Letac. Found anything interesting?" asked Susan.

"I have in fact. In the 2290s a group of humans from Earth stumbled into this system and colonised Guyra III. After a few years a vicious disease went through the colony and they called for Starfleet to assist them. Starfleet sent the USS _Socrates_. While it was here it did a bit of scanning and found the abandoned city on Guyra IV. 5 years later scientists and archaeologists arrived and they soon found evidence of this place. Four months later the first human entered here. Starfleet quickly moved in. They built the Starbase on Guyra IV near the abandoned city. It took them 40 years but they converted this place for Starfleet use."

"Who built it?"

"We don't know. While many of the systems were still intact they're computer system didn't have any information at all. They were blank. Another interesting thing is that the lighting in here is all natural. Apparently there are mirrors and focusing devices all over the moons surface that filter the sun light through the cavern. It also converts a lot of the energy for its systems. It is the ultimate renewable power generator. But they are still exploring a lot of it today. There are a lot of collapsed and sealed off areas. They are not sure if it was on purpose or from meteor strikes on this moon. One thing is clear this place is amazing."

Jonathan nodded in silent agreement as he looked out the viewscreen. The _Swiftfire_ was just about in its bay. The ship slowed to a stop and the ship shook as it was tethered to its station.

"We're docked. Alright people, the faster you set up for the engineers to come in and polish up the _Swiftfire_ the faster you'll be on leave."


	2. Chapter 1

Jonathan sat down and took a sip of his drink. It had been over three hours since the _Swiftfire_ had docked. He had spent most of his time with one of Admiral Harvey's aides, giving reports and receiving the latest tactical data. When he had finished Jonathan came to the Commanding Officers lounge. The lounge was a small luxurious lounge reserved for the commanding officers of Starships. Jonathan sat in one of the large cushioned seats that faced out one of the large viewports that showed Guyra IV. Jonathan was just admiring the view when he heard someone call out his name. Jonathan swivelled his chair around to see who was calling him and saw a middle aged female Captain smiling in his direction. She had short, very blonde hair that was parted slightly right from centre, which made her hair cover slightly more of the left side of her face. She had deep blue eyes the reflected intelligence. She seemed to be bubbling with energy.

"Captain Masters?" she said. "I thought it was you! Is this seat taken?"

She motioned to a seat next to Jonathan.

"No. I'm terribly sorry but…" Jonathan paused as he thought about how to say it. "I don't believe we have met."

The woman sat down and shifted until she was comfortable.

"I guess I look different without the dirt, smoke and blood over my face. I'm Captain Isabella O'Meara, of the USS _Sparrow_."

Jonathan furrowed his brow as he searched his memory to place the name with the face.

"The USS _Sparrow_, _Sabre_ class," remembered Jonathan. "We extended the _Swiftfire's_ shields around your ship to protect you when you were disabled. I remember. I have to say you look much better."

"Thank you, for saving my life, the lives of my crew and for being so complimentary. The _Sparrow_ is still undergoing repairs but they say it will be ready in two days time. Have you heard the news?"

"About the 2nd Fleet? Yes."

Captain Isabella O'Meara shook her head. "I can't believe the Dominion out manoeuvred them so easily. They were lucky those reinforcements were nearby."

"I know," agreed Jonathan. "The Dominion seems to be doing it all over the Front. Only the 7th seems to be actually holding them at bay."

"The war isn't going too well," Isabella added mournfully.

"It's early days yet. I'm sure things will get better," Jonathan tried to fill his voice with confidence but doubt crept into his voice.

Both Captains fell silent.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Isabella, breaking the silence.

Jonathan looked up at Isabella and saw she was admiring the view.

"Yes it is. I keep meaning to go down there, but I've been too busy," said Jonathan

"You should go down. I've been planet side and it is a beautiful, untouched planet. If you and your crew are on leave for the next couple of days we should arrange for our crews to go down and have some R & R, there are some very beautiful beaches near the Starbase. I'll show you a good time," said Isabella, smiling wickedly.

A smile tugged at the corner of Jonathan's mouth. He was just about to say something when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't believe it!"

Isabella looked confused and turned to see what Jonathan was looking at. In view were dozens of ships, Klingon ships. Suddenly that number doubled as more ships decloaked.

The Station's intercom chirped to indicate a message was coming over its system.

"_On behalf of the Fifth Fleet, I, Admiral Harvey, welcome the Klingon Third Battle Group to the Guyra system and to the Dominion War."_

* * *

In one of the dozens of other lounges that were scattered around the moon base Lieutenant Karak, Lieutenant Terri Letac and Ensign Frank Cole were standing at a viewport looking at the newly arrived Klingon Fleet.

"I've never seen such a large development of Klingon ships before," said Ensign Frank Cole. "How many ships are there?"

"Around 200," replied Lieutenant Terri Letac.

"Actually there are 243 ships," said Lieutenant Karak.

"You counted them?" asked Frank surprised.

"Yes. A simple endeavour, it only requires a bit of concentration, easy for Vulcans not so for humans."

"_Vor'chas_, Birds of Prey, _K'Vorts_, _K't'Ingas_, _Kel'vars, Felg'ras, Brakts _and even some _Toraths_. Quite a fleet. I was hoping to see a _Negh'Var_ battle cruiser," said Terri.

"_Negh'Var_? Isn't that the name of the Klingon Flagship that led the attack on DS9 last year?" asked Frank.

"Yes. It is a brute of a ship. It has two huge disruptors on its underside. They hammered down the shields of DS9."

"I doubt you will see many _Negh'Vars_," said Karak. "Chancellor Gowron will keep the bulk of them in the Klingon Empire. He is more concerned with protecting the Empire. But he has to offer some assets to Starfleet."

"But the logical thing to do would be to throw everything they had behind us. The Dominion isn't going to attack the Klingon Empire since it is on the other side of the Federation. If the Dominion can beat the Federation then they can easily beat the Klingons."

"That is the logical course of action, but the Klingons are worse then humans when it comes too being logical."

* * *

"Starfleet is too cautious!" shouted the Klingon.

"General G'tor, you don't have to shout," said Admiral Victor Harvey. "We are tasked with holding the Dominion; we can't do anything until Command gives us the order. We're spread too thin as it is. Command is sending reinforcements but we can't launch a large operation until…"

G'tor angrily stood and paced. "You are allowing the Dominion to dictate the terms of this war!"

Harvey watched the old Klingon warrior carefully. G'tor was an old war horse and had seen many battles and wars, the fact he managed to get grey hair was a testament to his skills. According to the reports he got from Starfleet Intelligence until a few weeks ago he had been on the outer with the Klingon high council. It seemed to be due to his adversarial relationship with Gowron. Harvey had not been overjoyed to hear that G'tor was going to join his command, though at least it wasn't with the Fourth Battlegroup. The Fifth Fleet and the Fourth Battlegroup had clashed during the recent war with the Klingons and there was a bit of bad blood between the two fleets.

That was the past and this was the present, the Klingons were once again allies and the man across from his was no longer his enemy. Harvey then briefly wondered if that was why Gowron had sent G'tor here, on the hope that the Fifth Fleet commanders would _accidentally_ let a couple of Jem'Hadar strike ships through and kill the general. If that was true then Gowron would be disappointed, at the moment they couldn't afford to needlessly waste ships and personnel, even if they wouldn't be sad to see some gone.

"General, you've seen the reports; we can't afford to dispatch large forces to attack the Dominion when we can't even defend our borders with the forces we have."

"NO! We must strike now! There is no discussion. In seven hours the Klingon Third Battlegroup will be heading for GLORY!"

G'tor was old and maybe that was why he was so forceful with going out to engage the enemy. He couldn't serve forever and time was running out for him to die his honourable death. Whatever the reason there was nothing Harvey could do to stop him. The Klingon force was not under his direct control. If G'tor wanted to take a trip to Cardassia Prime he couldn't stop him.

* * *

"Quarter impulse, Lieutenant," ordered Captain Jonathan Masters.

"Fantastic, another patrol. Why do we get all the luck," said Lt. Commander Nikki Whitechapel not hiding her sarcasm. "There are a dozen other ships docked here, why couldn't they do it."

"Because it was a ship in our wing that was damaged and in returning."

"Well, we're damaged too!"

"Not as badly as the _Hawkins_ is. Those Jem'Hadar really did a number on her and Brand wants us back on there to keep the hordes at bay. You should be happy that we're wanted."

Nikki continued to grumble as the _Swiftfire_ cruised out of the Moonbase into open space.

"Sir, we're been hailed by Admiral Harvey," reported Lt. Terri Letac.

"On screen."

The Admiral appeared on the viewscreen.

"_Captain, hold your position. The Klingon Fleet is deploying, I don't want you to crash into them."_

"Yes, Admiral. Helm, full stop."

The _Swiftfire_ came to a complete stop. From around the horizon of the moon came the Klingons, all of them. On the edges and at the front were the Birds of Prey with the _Vor'chas_ and other large cruisers placed in the centre of the formation. All the other ships were arrayed around this core.

"I wonder where they are off to?" asked Commander Susan Core.

"You can be sure it is not a family picnic. They are off to attack something; they're in the standard attack formation. They didn't waste much time. They have only been here for seven hours."

Suddenly the ships at the front stretched out and snapped back in a flash of light. In a stunning show of coordination the next row of ships went to warp. In an amazing lightshow the entire fleet disappeared into warp.

"We have been given the all clear," reported Terri.

"Great. Continue on course, Warp 6. Engage."

In a far less spectacular fashion the _Swiftfire_ entered warp.


	3. Chapter 2

It took 40 minutes for the Swiftfire to reach its patrol zone, but it took only seconds for it to find trouble.

"I have three Attack ships dead ahead!" reported Lt. Letac.

"Shields up. Weapons armed. Targeting them," said Nikki. "Launch fighters?"

"No. We'll deal with them. Helm, close distance. Lt. Commander, fire three torpedoes and set them to proximity detonation."

"Yes, sir. Torpedoes sets. Firing."

Three torpedoes launched from the rear weapons pod towards the attack ship. The Attack ships manoeuvred and the torpedoes missed, just like Jonathan thought. But since they didn't miss by much their proximity detectors set off the warhead. The torpedoes exploded causing damage to all three Attack ships.

"Fire Phasers."

The _Swiftfire's_ top array powered up and released a beam of destructive energy, hitting one of the Attack ships. The Attack ships returned fire from their Phased Polaron emitters striking the Swiftfire's shields. As the Attack ships got close to the _Swiftfire_ they split up. One flew straight over the top of the _Swiftfire_, presenting its largest cross section. Nikki took advantage of this firing a barrage of Phaser fire at the ship. The first two phaser blasts hit the Attack ship's shields, collapsing them. The rest stuck the hull. One of the beams sliced right through the Attack ship and it exploded. The remaining two Attack ships attacked from different sides, splitting the _Swiftfire's_ fire and not allowing the _Swiftfire_ to just reinforce one shield area. But it was still an unfair fight. The _Swiftfire's_ Phasers tracked and found one of the Attack ships, obliterating it. The remaining Attack ship received the same attention and had a nacelle sliced off. The Attack ship's engines took a hit, exploding. The explosion put the Attack ship into a spin and it impacted on the _Swiftfire's_ shields.

"Damage report."

"Shields at 89%. I even managed to collect some of the energy of the impact and transfer it to weapons."

"Great work. Take up the patrol pattern. I will be in my Ready Room if we run into any more fun."

* * *

The rest of the patrol for the day was uneventful and Jonathan and Susan relaxed in the Captain's quarters.

"…that's when I say, sure if you were on Risa!"

Jonathan shook his head as he laughed.

"Susan, how do you get away with saying that?"

"I don't know. Probably because of my undeniable charm and good looks," Susan said. She pouted the flicked her hair.

"One day Susan you are going to get into trouble."

"That day hasn't come yet. So have you seen Wing Commander Benton lately?"

"No. I've been too busy. Why do you ask?"

"She is quite taken by you."

Jonathan looked surprised. "Really?"

"Don't really me! I know you know."

"Okay, I do know. I like her."

"You like her enough to visit her about a million times when she was injured back in Sector 432."

"How did you know that?"

"You forget that Carol and I are friends."

"Alright. I'm attracted to her. I feel concern for her but I don't think I'm ready for a relationship."

"When was the last time you spent time with a woman?"

"Right now. Unless there is something you're not telling me."

"Don't be silly," said Susan as she playfully nudged Jonathan. "I meant had a date, spent quality time with someone you could see yourself with in the future."

Jonathan's head dipped and he closed his eyes. A look of pain came to his face as he remembered.

"Several years."

"That's what I mean. You need companionship, the type only a partner can provide."

"It is not like I haven't looked. I've had feeling for several women, including Maxine. But there was something missing, something stopping me. Something that caused me to not go any further."

"You still think about Mel, don't you?" asked Susan in a low hushed tone. Susan realised that this was the cause of Jonathan's pained look before.

"It has been a long time since I'm heard someone say her name," said Jonathan, struggling to keep his voice from breaking.

Susan knew a bit of Jonathan's history with the woman he only referred to as "Mel". Something had happened between them a long time ago and it had left Jonathan with severe emotional scars.

"Jonathan, do you believe that there is one person out there who is for you?"

"You mean a soul mate? I like to believe that."

"Do you think that this person is going to drop out of the sky and land on your lap?"

"No. But it would make things much easier."

Susan smiled at Jonathan's joke. Finally she had broken through and Jonathan was back to normal.

"If fate wanted it to be easy it would be. You have to search and if it were simple, love would be very boring. So go out spend time with Maxine, you never know she might be the one."

"You're not going to leave me alone until I do, are you?"

"Nope."

"There's a word for what is going on here."

"Counselling?"

"No. Mutiny."

Susan laughed.

"Well, it is getting late. I better be going."

Susan stood up and walked towards the door. She turned as she reached the door.

"Remember. The one isn't going to fall out of the sky. You have to look. The journey is as important as the destination."

Susan turned and left.

Jonathan was alone in the room. He stood up and moved to one of the windows and just stared out at the distances specks of light.

"I know that I have to find the one," whispered Jonathan. "But what if I've already found and lost her?"

* * *

"Admiral, we just picked this up on a secure channel."

The Lieutenant went to a viewscreen and brought up a transmission.

"_This is General G'tor, we have engaged Dominion forces dealing with the Son'a. Dominion reinforcements have arrived and are attempting to outflank us. We need assistance. We are…"_

The message froze and then disappeared.

"What happened?"

"We are unsure. We lost all communications and we can't raise them on any channel. The possibility is that the Klingons were destroyed."

"The General would have sounded more panicked if his ship had been close to destruction. Plus I see no sign of damage in the background, no smoke or sparks. We need to send a force to investigate. Where are they?"

"We don't know. We traced it to an area in a sector but we can't narrow it down."

"Damn! The Klingons should have waited. We need to send out a search party. Lieutenant, what ships do we have in the vicinity of that sector?"

The Lieutenant tapped the screen and brought up a map of space. The Sector where the Klingons were missing was a red haze. A blue line ran across the screen. The line was the border between Federation controlled space and Cardassian-Dominion space. The sector the Klingons went missing in was in Cardassian space. There were 8 small Starfleet symbols on the border close to the sector.

"As you can see we have 8 ships nearby from the 268th Tactical Wing," said the Lieutenant. He tapped one and a smaller window appeared showing a three-dimensional picture of a starship, under the picture was the ships name and other important data.

"That's Cameron Brand's wing isn't it?"

"It is Vice Admiral Brand's wing, sir. They are currently tasked with patrolling that section of the front. The ships are the USS _Malinche_, _Excelsior_ class, the USS _Freedom_, _Freedom_ class, Brand's flagship USS _Warwick_, _Canberra_ class escorted by the USS _Perry_, _Steamrunner_ class, the USS _Phar Lap_ and USS _Long_, _Miranda _class, USS _Shokia_, _Sabre_ class and the USS _Swiftfire_, _Akira_ class."

"Send the ships messages to rendezvous at Grid 468 of the patrol zone. Give the Vice Admiral the details and put him in charge of the operation. Then see to launching more ships into the area for support."

* * *

"Captain, we are getting a message from the _Warwick_. We are to rendezvous with them at grid 468 for a search and possibly rescue operation," reported Karak.

"Search for whom?" asked Core.

"The message does not specify."

Captain Masters nodded, "Very well, we have our orders. Helm, take us to grid 468, maximum Warp."


	4. Chapter 3

The _Swiftfire_ dropped out of warp to find six Starfleet ships arrayed around a larger Starfleet vessel. It was an assorted collection of ships, two _Mirandas_, a _Sabre_, an _Excelsior_, a single nacelle _Freedom_ all surrounded a larger ship, a _Canberra_ class carrier.

"We are being hailed," said Letac.

"On screen."

The aged face of Vice Admiral Brand appeared on the screen. Brand was in command of the tactical wing the _Swiftfire_ was assigned to. Most of their orders came from him.

"_Captain Masters, I'm sorry I had to cut your rest short and bring you back out on patrol."_

"That's okay, Admiral. The war doesn't stop while we have a break. I hear we are searching for something, what is it?"

"_The Klingons."_

"The Klingons? I don't understand."

"_The Third Battlegroup to be exact. Command has lost contact with them. All we know is that they attacked a Dominion force somewhere in this sector, just over the border. We don't know what happened to them but we suspect that they have been destroyed."_

"What are our orders?"

"_I'm sending you your search area. You are to search for any signs of the Klingons and then report it in. If you encounter a large Dominion force you are to retreat. We don't need to lose any ships unnecessarily."_

"I couldn't agree more."

* * *

Ensign Keith Fenris checked his sensors and then switched on his communication unit.

"_Swiftfire_, this is Puma Four. I've detected an unusual subspace disturbance in Grid 526."

"_This is Lieutenant Letac, what type of disturbance have you encountered?"_

"I'm not sure. Sensors just picked it up and…Whoa! It is sending out shockwaves."

"_Ensign…mission…up…peat."_

"_Swiftfire_, I didn't get your last transmission. _Swiftfire_? Lieutenant Letac, can you read me?"

All Ensign Fenris got was silence. The Ensign checked his systems. All systems were running normally, so that meant the disturbance must be interfering. Despite the lack of communications he kept going. Sensors were also down. He increased power to his sensors and after a bit of fiddling he managed to get around the interference. In his sensors appeared several ships, though the interference still stopped him from identifying them. The Ensign increased his velocity. Suddenly his ship went crazy. Alarms started blaring and lights started to flash. The Ensign's head jerked around as he panicked and tried to see what was going on. He yanked back hard on the control stick, sending the ship's nose upwards. Space seemed to ripple at the nose of the fighter, like a still pond interrupted by a falling stone.

"Oh my God!" said the Ensign as the ripple washed over his craft.

* * *

"Lieutenant, what happened to the transmission?"

"We lost it, Captain. The disturbance he was talking about must be interfering," explained Terri.

"How many fighters do we have out there?"

"Including Ensign Fenris, four."

"Send them to Fenris' last recorded position. Helm, continue on course."

* * *

Maxine waited until the last fighter stopped.

"Alright, Keith has gone missing somewhere nearby. We don't how what happened or his status. Sensors are having trouble with the subspace disturbance in this area, so we going to have to rely on visually spotting him, at least until we get sensor up and running. We will be flying close so that we can boost our short-range communications and hopefully keep in contact. Flank me and then match my speed. Clear? Good. Follow me."

Maxine eased her fighter forward. The two other fighters flanked her. Her fighter shuddered as it entered the disturbance. She visually scanned space in front of her. She took a quick peek at her sensors. They were having trouble with detecting the two fighters mere metres away let alone a fighter that could be thousands of kilometres away.

"Can you hear me Puma Three and Eight?"

She received two hazy acknowledgements.

"We'll keep an open channel as long as we can. Yell out if you spot anything. Puma Eight, see if you can do anything with the sensors."

"_Will do, Lead."_

The fighters cruised forward slowly as their pilots looked around for any signs of life. The call signs Maxine was using was to simplify communications and the breakdown of the forces. Maxine was in command of three Squadrons on the _Swiftfire_, Overcome, Puma and Oasis, each with twelve fighters. Each Squadron had a Squadron commander labelled as One or Lead, so that commander of Puma Squadron would be Puma One or Puma Lead/Leader. Maxine was the commander of Overcome squadron as well as the commander of the combined Squadrons.

"_Lead, this is Four. I think I can see something at roughly Mark 010, Bearing 020."_

Maxine looked out in the general direction. Maxine still couldn't really make anything out.

"I still can't see it. Alter course and close distance."

The Fighters continued to close until Maxine finally made out the ship.

"I see it. It is a _Peregrine_ fighter. Eight, how are you doing with those sensors?"

"_Nothing yet. I don't…wait. I can't believe I didn't think of that before! It was so straightforward. Sensors are up but they still suffer at range. I'm scanning Keith's fighter now. That is strange! I'm getting reports that the _Peregrine's_ engines are at full thrust."_

"That's impossible, the ship is hardly moving."

"_Actually, it isn't moving," _said Eight. _ "I've scanned for life signs and it is inconclusive."_

"The distortion must be messing with sensors still. Let's get closer."

"_No change in readings," _reported Eight as they closed.

"Send the modifications you made to Four and me."

Maxine got the modifications and soon had sensors running. She confirmed everything Eight _had told her._

"_This is the strangest thing I have ever seen,"_ said Four.

Suddenly alarms all over her ship went off. Maxine instinctively went to throttle up and yank the control stick towards her but stopped.

"Emergency stop! I repeat, emergency stop!"

Maxine quickly pressed the necessary controls and her fighter came to a sharp stop, throwing her forward.

"That was close. We nearly ended up like Keith. Look at the readings. He was pulling up sharply and at maximum thrust. Whatever happened to him would have gotten us. We must be near the edge of a massive distortion. The Sensors only just picked it up. The same must have happened to Keith."

"_Lead, check the edge of our scanning range."_

Maxine checked her scanners and saw that several ships had appeared on the very edge.

"I can't make out what type of ships they are. Can any of you guys?"

"_Negative. I get nothing."_

"_Same here. But I bet the _Swiftfire_ could. She has damn powerful sensors."_

"Well, it is better then nothing. You two hold your positions and monitor Keith and those ships, while I go get the _Swiftfire_."

* * *

"Anything yet, Lt. Commander Whitechapel?" asked Jonathan.

"No. Not even a comet."

"Captain, Wing Commander Benton is hailing us."

"Hopefully she has found the Klingons. On screen."

"_Captain, we have found Ensign Fenris."_

"Excellent. Is he okay?"

"_I think you should see for yourself."_


	5. Chapter 4

The _Swiftfire_ exited warp near Maxine's fighter.

"So where is the Ensign, Wing Commander? Where are the rest of your fighters?"

"_Just follow me, Captain. They aren't far."_

"So what have you learned about the distortion in this area?" asked Jonathan.

"_Not much. All we know is that it interferes with sensors, scanners and communications. We managed to get around some of these problems. Comms still work as long as you are close, the same with sensors. But you should do much better. Your systems are far more powerful then the ones we carry. I'll send the modifications we did and you can modify it to suit your systems."_

Jonathan glanced at Lieutenant Letac. She nodded to show she had received the data.

The _Swiftfire_ finally arrived where Puma Three and Eight had waited.

"Is that Ensign Fenris? Is he okay?"

Maxine explained the situation.

"_So we don't really know what is going on. We are hoping you would be able to find out more."_

"I've made the modifications to the sensors and I'm scanning the Ensign's fighter now. I'm getting a complete reading and it shows all systems green, no energy spikes or fluctuations. But I really can't tell any more, I can't even tell if the Ensign is alive."

"Try pulling the fighter in with a tractor beam, Lt. Commander."

"I'm having trouble locking on. But I have its absolute position; I can just enter the coordinates manually. Done. Tractor beam locked and firing."

A blue light flashed out from the bottom of the _Swiftfire's_ Saucer section. The beam looked to be on target and it would connect with the fighter but it suddenly stopped. A huge ripple appeared in space, it originated from where the Tractor beam stopped.

"Lieutenant?" Queried the Captain.

"The distortion is blocking the beam. I can't explain why it is stopping it. The Fighter travelled through the "skin" so the beam should. I suggest we launch a Probe."

"Do it."

Terri quickly loaded a Probe into one of the launchers and launched it. The Probe slowly moved away.

"Probe is up and running, we are getting a good transmission from it. I'm accelerating it."

The Probe's speed increased then it hit the distortion, again causing a ripple. The Probe travelled for a second and then stopped.

"We have lost contact with the Probe, Captain."

"That was a startling success! I guess sending the _Swiftfire_ in is out of the question."

"It may not have been a waste of time. The Probe gave a short reading from inside the distortion. I'm pretty sure I can use this to get sensors up."

"Get on it. Lt. Commander, tell the fighters to come back aboard. There is nothing else they can do."

It took awhile but Terri got the sensors up and running.

"I've managed to map the distortion. It isn't that large, in fact it is very localised. I'm also detecting a large number of contacts close to the centre of the disturbance."

"What type of ships?"

"Hard to tell. But some are in visual range."

"Put them on screen."

The screen changed to show a battlefield. Klingon and Dominion ships were scattered, some firing, some exploding but it was like a still picture.

"It is the Third Battlegroup," said Jonathan. "What's happened? It's like they're frozen."

"That's it!" explained Terri. She did another scan. "They are frozen in time. The time indictors are frozen on the _Peregrine_ and the probe. The distortion in subspace has stopped space time in this area."

"How is that possible?"

"It isn't…it least as far as I know. But we need to find and remove whatever is messing with space time."

"But the cause is in there," said Jonathan.

"That is the dilemma. But maybe there is something in the database similar to this."

Lieutenant Letac searched the Computer Database for a while before getting a result.

"The USS _Enterprise_-D had a similar experience but time was slowed down rather then stopped."

"I should have known. I swear the _Enterprise_ attracts spatial phenomena. So what happened to the _Enterprise_?"

"The _Enterprise_ went to help a Warbird, which had some sort of creature that set up shop in its quantum singularity. The affect was time slowing down."

"That doesn't really help since none of these ships use a mini black hole to power it and there are no black holes in the area."

"There is more. Captain Picard managed to design a subspace isolation field so that he and the ship's counsellor still operated in normal space time. It is possible that with a few modifications we could turn the shields into a temporal shield, which would allow us to enter the distortion."

"It's worth a try. Lt. Letac, go and join Lt. Commander Celcho and see if you can modify a Probe with these temporal shields."

They soon had the Probe ready for launch.

"Captain, the Probe is ready. You can launch at any time."

"Good work Lieutenant and Lt. Commander. Launch the probe."

The _Swiftfire_ launched a second probe. Like the first probe it hit the distortion's "skin" causing a ripple. It travelled for a few seconds and then stopped.

"We lost contact," reported Lt. Commander Whitechapel.

"Is it frozen?"

"No. It still has its running lights flashing. I think it stopped because it lost communications with us."

"So the shields are working? She is still running."

"The probe slowed to a stop rather than jolting to a stop like the first one and her lights are flashing, so the shields have held. But because we can't communicate with it, the probe doesn't know what to do."

"Can we modify the communication array to counter it?"

"I'm not sure. It will take time before I could give you a definite answer."

"If it is no then we wasted too much time. Get to it anyway. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to rescue Ensign Fenris?"

"How about taking a shuttle in? We remodulate its shields, which shouldn't take too long, take it in and rescue the Ensign."

"Lt. Commander Celcho, are you listening to this," said Jonathan over the internal communication system.

"_Yes, I think it will work. Plus we could gather more info on the distortion from inside it."_

"How sure are you that it will work?"

"_Pretty sure. Of course we don't know how it will affect the person who goes in the shuttle but I've got a backup plan. But if I go I'm very sure it will work."_

"I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I Lt. Commander?" asked Jonathan.

"_Nope. I'm just about in the shuttlebay anyway."_


	6. Chapter 5

The _Swiftfire_ exited warp near Maxine's fighter.

"So where is the Ensign, Wing Commander? Where are the rest of your fighters?"

"_Just follow me, Captain. They aren't far."_

"So what have you learned about the distortion in this area?" asked Jonathan.

"_Not much. All we know is that it interferes with sensors, scanners and communications. We managed to get around some of these problems. Comms still work as long as you are close, the same with sensors. But you should do much better. Your systems are far more powerful then the ones we carry. I'll send the modifications we did and you can modify it to suit your systems."_

Jonathan glanced at Lieutenant Letac. She nodded to show she had received the data.

The _Swiftfire_ finally arrived where Puma Three and Eight had waited.

"Is that Ensign Fenris? Is he okay?"

Maxine explained the situation.

"_So we don't really know what is going on. We are hoping you would be able to find out more."_

"I've made the modifications to the sensors and I'm scanning the Ensign's fighter now. I'm getting a complete reading and it shows all systems green, no energy spikes or fluctuations. But I really can't tell any more, I can't even tell if the Ensign is alive."

"Try pulling the fighter in with a tractor beam, Lt. Commander."

"I'm having trouble locking on. But I have its absolute position; I can just enter the coordinates manually. Done. Tractor beam locked and firing."

A blue light flashed out from the bottom of the _Swiftfire's_ Saucer section. The beam looked to be on target and it would connect with the fighter but it suddenly stopped. A huge ripple appeared in space, it originated from where the Tractor beam stopped.

"Lieutenant?" Queried the Captain.

"The distortion is blocking the beam. I can't explain why it is stopping it. The Fighter travelled through the "skin" so the beam should. I suggest we launch a Probe."

"Do it."

Terri quickly loaded a Probe into one of the launchers and launched it. The Probe slowly moved away.

"Probe is up and running, we are getting a good transmission from it. I'm accelerating it."

The Probe's speed increased then it hit the distortion, again causing a ripple. The Probe travelled for a second and then stopped.

"We have lost contact with the Probe, Captain."

"That was a startling success! I guess sending the _Swiftfire_ in is out of the question."

"It may not have been a waste of time. The Probe gave a short reading from inside the distortion. I'm pretty sure I can use this to get sensors up."

"Get on it. Lt. Commander, tell the fighters to come back aboard. There is nothing else they can do."

It took awhile but Terri got the sensors up and running.

"I've managed to map the distortion. It isn't that large, in fact it is very localised. I'm also detecting a large number of contacts close to the centre of the disturbance."

"What type of ships?"

"Hard to tell. But some are in visual range."

"Put them on screen."

The screen changed to show a battlefield. Klingon and Dominion ships were scattered, some firing, some exploding but it was like a still picture.

"It is the Third Battlegroup," said Jonathan. "What's happened? It's like they're frozen."

"That's it!" explained Terri. She did another scan. "They are frozen in time. The time indictors are frozen on the _Peregrine_ and the probe. The distortion in subspace has stopped space time in this area."

"How is that possible?"

"It isn't…it least as far as I know. But we need to find and remove whatever is messing with space time."

"But the cause is in there," said Jonathan.

"That is the dilemma. But maybe there is something in the database similar to this."

Lieutenant Letac searched the Computer Database for a while before getting a result.

"The USS _Enterprise_-D had a similar experience but time was slowed down rather then stopped."

"I should have known. I swear the _Enterprise_ attracts spatial phenomena. So what happened to the _Enterprise_?"

"The _Enterprise_ went to help a Warbird, which had some sort of creature that set up shop in its quantum singularity. The affect was time slowing down."

"That doesn't really help since none of these ships use a mini black hole to power it and there are no black holes in the area."

"There is more. Captain Picard managed to design a subspace isolation field so that he and the ship's counsellor still operated in normal space time. It is possible that with a few modifications we could turn the shields into a temporal shield, which would allow us to enter the distortion."

"It's worth a try. Lt. Letac, go and join Lt. Commander Celcho and see if you can modify a Probe with these temporal shields."

They soon had the Probe ready for launch.

"Captain, the Probe is ready. You can launch at any time."

"Good work Lieutenant and Lt. Commander. Launch the probe."

The _Swiftfire_ launched a second probe. Like the first probe it hit the distortion's "skin" causing a ripple. It travelled for a few seconds and then stopped.

"We lost contact," reported Lt. Commander Whitechapel.

"Is it frozen?"

"No. It still has its running lights flashing. I think it stopped because it lost communications with us."

"So the shields are working? She is still running."

"The probe slowed to a stop rather than jolting to a stop like the first one and her lights are flashing, so the shields have held. But because we can't communicate with it, the probe doesn't know what to do."

"Can we modify the communication array to counter it?"

"I'm not sure. It will take time before I could give you a definite answer."

"If it is no then we wasted too much time. Get to it anyway. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to rescue Ensign Fenris?"

"How about taking a shuttle in? We remodulate its shields, which shouldn't take too long, take it in and rescue the Ensign."

"Lt. Commander Celcho, are you listening to this," said Jonathan over the internal communication system.

"_Yes, I think it will work. Plus we could gather more info on the distortion from inside it."_

"How sure are you that it will work?"

"_Pretty sure. Of course we don't know how it will affect the person who goes in the shuttle but I've got a backup plan. But if I go I'm very sure it will work."_

"I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I Lt. Commander?" asked Jonathan.

"_Nope. I'm just about in the shuttlebay anyway."_


	7. Chapter 6

Nikki watched from the relatively safety of the shuttle. She watched as Pavlo stood up and pressed the Tricorder. She saw him make some small movements before he looked down at his feet. Pavlo lent forward rather awkwardly. Nikki was about to ask Pavlo what was going on when he suddenly seemed to lose control of his feet. They bent and kicked for no apparent reason, sending Pavlo's torso into the fighter. Nikki finally realised something was going wrong as Pavlo's head darted around in panic. She saw him push off hard with his right hand. What happened next sent a chill to her bones. As Pavlo drifted off the Fighter came to life and in a blink of an eye Pavlo's right arm disappeared. A trail of blood appeared and hovered in space. Nikki zoomed in on Pavlo and he was motionless stuck in time. There was a look of absolute shock on his face as he stared unblinking at where his arm should be.

Nikki then turned her attention to Ensign Fenris and his fighter. The Fighter was slowly coming to a stop. She could make out the young pilot franticly trying to regain control of his fighter.

"Ensign Fenris," hailed Nikki. "This is Lt. Commander Whitechapel of the Swiftfire. Calm down, you are okay. Don't panic. Are you okay?"

"_Y-yes. I think,"_ replied a shaken Ensign Fenris.

"Good. Let me fill you in."

Nikki explained the situation to Ensign Fenris.

"Now we have to somehow get Lt. Commander Celcho back to the _Swiftfire_."

"_Jesus, it's unbelievable. If I could regain control I could go for help. But my systems are locked and I can't get into them."_

Nikki just nodded as she thought about what to do. She could always go back for help but she couldn't leave him here. She stood up and walked around the shuttle as if it would give her inspiration. As she paced she looked through the contents of the shuttle. The only useful things she found were another spacesuit and an emergency medical kit. She opened the kit and looked through it. It had a hypospray, some bandages, a simple medical tricorder and various capsules to put in the hypospray. It gave her an idea. Nikki grabbed the spacesuit and put it on. She then went to the shuttles controls and decompressed the shuttle and opened the rear door. She then grabbed the hypospray and the bandages and placed them in her utility belt. Nikki then lined the rear door up with Pavlo and set the shuttle to reverse and scoop him up. Nikki moved up to the edge of the rear of the shuttle. She had to catch Pavlo as quick as possible because as soon as he entered the temporal shield area he would start to bleed and leak air through the hole around what was left of his arm. This would be tricky but Nikki had confidence in herself and her abilities.

The Shuttle reversed quickly and Nikki steadied herself to catch Pavlo. Pavlo entered the temporal shields and returned to normal spacetime. He trashed about in pain Nikki managed to get a glance at his face as his head swung about in pain and confusion. Pavlo's eyes were clenched shut with his mouth wide open, screaming. Pavlo entered the Shuttle and slammed into Nikki, sending both officers flying backwards. Nikki struggled to get up and hold down the thrashing Chief Engineer.

"Computer! Stop Shuttle. Close Doors and re-pressurise," yelled Nikki.

Nikki straddled Pavlo's chest and pinned him in one spot with her weight. Then with both hands she pressed on the hole in Pavlo's suit and on the remains of his right arm. Blood and air continued to seep out.

"Cabin Pressurised," reported the Shuttle's Computer.

That fixed one problem. Pavlo wasn't going to suffocate but if she couldn't calm him down she wouldn't be able to help him. Nikki let go of Pavlo's right arm and released Pavlo's helmet and pulled it off. Then she removed her own helmet.

"Lt. Commander Celcho!" She yelled. "Lt. Commander, I need you to hold still!"

Pavlo appear not to hear her. He continued to squirm all the time murmuring. Nikki saw that Pavlo was in shock and pulled out the hypospray and placed it to his neck. Pavlo stopped moving as he was sedated. Blood continued to pour out of Pavlo's arm. Nikki knew that she would not be able to stop the bleeding fast enough with the bandages she had. She knew of only one was to stop the bleeding quickly. She drew her phaser and put it on a low setting. She then aimed it at the wound and fired. The shuttle cabin filled with the smell of burning flesh as Nikki cauterised the wound. Sure enough the bleeding stopped. Nikki grabbed the medical tricorder and scanned Pavlo. He was in a very bad shape; he needed serious medical attention straight away.

Nikki jumped up and ran to the Shuttles controls. She powered up the Shuttles engines and opened up communications with Ensign Fenris.

"Ensign, Lt. Commander Celcho is in a critical situation. I'm going to have to get him back to the Swiftfire right now."

"_I understand, Lt. Commander. I think I can get myself back to the _Swiftfire_. I've got limited manoeuvring Thrusters back online. I'll be able to fly back. Just get the Chief Engineer back."_

"See you back at the Swiftfire."

Nikki was only half way through this sentence when she swung the shuttle and engaged full impulse for the _Swiftfire_. Once she had passed out of the distortion she hailed the _Swiftfire_.

"_Swiftfire_, this is Lt. Commander Whitechapel, I have a medical emergency. Lock on to and beam Lt. Commander Celcho straight to sickbay. He has had his right arm severed and has lost a lot of blood."

"_Lt. Commander, this is Captain Masters. What happened?"_

"The Chief Engineer got clipped by the _Peregrine_ when it returned to normal spacetime. He need help now, he's slipping away even as we speak."

"_Okay. We're beaming him out now. Land your shuttle in the shuttlebay, I'll be there to meet you."_

True to his words Pavlo was beamed out of the shuttle. Nikki breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully the Doctor would be able to save Pavlo. Nikki lined the Shuttle up with the Swiftfire's shuttle deck and eased her inside. Nikki landed the shuttle and shut down the shuttle's engines. She noticed that her hands were covered in blood and that she had left a trail of blood all over the console. Her hands were shaking and she just sat there and stared at them as the reality of what was going on hit her.

The rear door opened and Jonathan stepped into the shuttle.

"Lt. Commander Whitechapel, are you ok-ay?"

Jonathan paused as he saw the bloodied Shuttle. Jonathan walked around the blood the best he could and made his way to the front of the Shuttle where Nikki sat facing away from him.

"Lt. Commander, it's me, the Captain," said Jonathan as he walked around.

Jonathan saw that Nikki was just staring down. She was shaking and sweating.

"Nikki," said Jonathan softly as he sat in the seat next to her.

Nikki finally snapped out of her trance.

"Captain! I'm sorry; I was just…is he okay?"

"Doctor Murphy is working on him now. They are trying to stabilise him at the moment. But the Doctor seemed confident that he would pull out."

"He was bleeding so badly I had to stop it. I had to use a Phaser to seal the wound."

"The Doctor said that it looked like you did that. She said that by doing that you gave him a fighting chance."

"He lost a lot of blood."

"Don't worry about it. You did your bit. It's up to the Doctor now."

Jonathan stood up and offered his hand to Nikki.

"You need a drink and I know just the thing."

Nikki took Jonathan's hand and Jonathan helped her up.

"You better get out of the spacesuit and leave it for the clean up teams to disinfect and to do whatever else they do."

Nikki nodded. She released the locks on the gloves and let the now red gloves fall to the ground. She then released the locks at her waist that connected the pants to the top. Nikki tried to pull the top of the suit off but she found that she didn't have the energy to do it.

"Captain, could you?"

"Of course."

Jonathan took hold of the sides and gently pulled the top up and over Nikki's head. Nikki's arm got caught and as Jonathan pulled the top back down, it pulled Nikki forward and causes her to lose her balance. To stop her from falling Nikki put out her now free hands onto Jonathan's chest. Jonathan instinctively grabbed Nikki's waist.

Nikki stared up into Jonathan's eyes. "Thanks."

Jonathan smiled and after a few seconds he spoke up.

"You alright? I can let go and you won't fall?" asked Jonathan.

Nikki blushed as she took her hands off Jonathan.

"Yes, I am alright."

Nikki immediately looked down so not to show the Captain her embarrassment. Nikki removed the legs and looked back up.

"Ready? Good. Now for that drink I promised you and I promise it will put hair on your tongue."

Nikki and Jonathan weren't even out of the Shuttlebay when Jonathan got a call from the Bridge.

"Captain, the other ships have arrived and Vice Admiral Brand wants you to brief him."

"I'm on my way to the Bridge now," said Jonathan. He turned to Nikki and looked apologetic. "That drink is going to have to wait. But you are going to have a bit of rest. You are off duty from now."

"Thank you, sir. But I'm fine."

"That's an order. But if you like I'll tell the Doctor to keep you informed on Lt. Commander Celcho condition."

"Thank you. Thank you very much, Captain."

Jonathan smiled and gave Nikki a polite nod then he turned and hurried off to the Bridge.


	8. Chapter 7

Jonathan exited the Turbolift and stepped onto the Bridge. The viewscreen showed the other ships that were part of the search party.

"The Vice Admiral wishes to speak to you, Captain," reported Commander Susan Core.

"On screen."

The Vice Admiral appeared on screen.

"_Captain Masters, what's the situation?"_

"We found the Klingons, sir," said Jonathan as he sat down in the Captain's chair. "They are in that subspace distortion. The distortion has stopped time in the area; if you enter it will also affect your ship and crew."

"_We saw a _Peregrine_ fighter and a shuttle leave the distortion, have you gotten around the problem?"_

"In the small ships, yes. For the _Swiftfire_…I'm not sure. Lieutenant Letac, are the modifications complete?"

"Yes, Captain. We have done the best we can to make it possible for us to enter the distortion safely. Though we won't know if it works until we actually enter," replied Letac.

"They you go Vice Admiral you have your answer. We'll transmit the modifications to all the other ships. Will it take long for them to make the modifications, Lieutenant?"

"No where near as long as it took us. A few minutes and they should be ready."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I have a suggestion, Vice Admiral."

"_Yes, Captain?"_

"We'll transmit you the modifications then we will enter the distortion. If the modifications work then the other ships follow."

"And if it doesn't?"

"We'll have some crew with their own temporal shields plus we will have a shuttle escorting us in. The crew that are not affected can get on the shuttle and tell you where we went wrong. You make the modifications, come in extend your shields around us and then help us fix the problem."

Vice Admiral Brand thought for a moment then nodded.

"_It has a lot of "if this works" in this plan. But since we can't sit around doing nothing, it will do. Go ahead Captain. Oh, do you have any communication and sensor modifications?"_

"My Science Officer will transmit them to you as part of the shield modifications."

With that the conversation ended and the viewscreen returned to show the Starfleet ships.

"Lieutenant Dyson, are you set up in Engineering?"

"_Yes, Captain," _came the reply over the communication system. _"I've also got some of my staff with the wristbands on."_

"Great. Lieutenant…?" Jonathan hesitated as he turned to see who was manning the Tactical station. Jonathan had mostly worked with Lt. Commander Whitechapel at the Tactical station and was unsure of who was now there.

"Elmhurst, sir."

"Lieutenant Elmhurst, launch the Shuttle. Lieutenant Letac, are we ready?"

"Ready as we will ever be!"

"Here goes nothing. Helm, quarter impulse straight ahead."

The _Swiftfire_ moved gently forward towards the distortion. The leading edge of the Swiftfire hit the edge of the distortion, causing a ripple. As the ship entered further the crew held their breath as the ship went finally the ship was fully in.

"Well, that wasn't too bad," said Commander Core. "I kinda wish something did go wrong, just to see what would have happened."

"Susan," said Jonathan as he shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if you can be serious about anything. Lt. Letac, flash the trailing lights."

The _Swiftfire's_ running lights at the back of the ship flashed to show the other Starfleet ships that the modifications worked. Soon the other ships joined the _Swiftfire_.

The _Swiftfire_ hailed Vice Admiral Brand's ship.

"Orders, sir?" asked Jonathan.

"_Head for the Klingons. We need to see how bad this situation is."_

* * *

The Starfleet ships headed for the battlefield. As they closed in the picture became clear. The Klingon fleet was in shambles. The fleet lacked any cohesion, while they outnumbered the Dominion force by over two to one the Dominion's had clearly outmanoeuvred the Klingons and was about to totally outflank the fleet. Klingon ships were in the middle of firing, others where in the middle of been destroyed. It was an eerie scene. But this wasn't important, deep in the Dominion lines were several what the computer identified as Son'a ships. One of the larger ships had a fairly large subspace tear that had ripped it open.

"Who the hell are the Son'a?" asked Core. "And what are they doing dealing with the Dominion?"

Jonathan shrugged. "I have no idea. These Son'a probably signed a trade deal with the Dominion. It isn't like half the quadrant hasn't rushed to do a deal with the Dominion already."

"There's the source. It's coming from that Son'a battle cruiser," said Terri. "I'm having trouble getting a clear scan of it."

"I didn't expect you to be able too. Nothing is easy. What is the chance of putting a landing party on that Son'a ship?"

"With the temporal shields, a spacesuit and some injections for radiation…it is possible. You would have to take a shuttle and dock with the ship since using Transporters is out of the question."

"Good. Commander Core, take a landing party to the Son'a vessel and see if you find a way to close that rip in Subspace."

"Finally I get to do something. Lieutenant Letac, you're with me. Let's go to Sickbay and see what the Doc has for the radiation."

* * *

"I wish I stayed on the ship," moaned Commander Susan Core. "This has to be the most boring Subspace rip in the universe. It doesn't appear to do anything. It isn't growing or shrinking. It isn't trying to swallow us up in a frenzy of screaming and running in circles. It's even letting you scan it without any adverse effects!"

"Stop complaining, Susan," said Doctor Carol Murphy. She was wondering around scanning the personnel making sure no one was experience any adverse effects. She came up and scanning the Commander.

"Hmmm…looks like the rip is causing aggression levels to increase. If we are not careful one of us could lose it and just start attacking the rest of us."

"Really?" came the reply from a now excited Commander.

"No. I just wanted to see how you would react."

Susan returned to her glum mumbling.

"Increase the chroniton radiation. Decrease it. Try an antigraviton beam. Anything? Okay. Don't worry about it. A tachyon burst? Might work, try it."

Lieutenant Terri Letac was busy trying to gather all the readings she could. Susan didn't really understand the fascination some people had with these types of things. Susan was more of an action girl and a subspace tear that froze time wasn't high on the "things to spend your day doing" list. Susan lent back against the wall and started to flick her Phaser rifle's safety on and off. Susan did this for a while before Lt. Letac came up to her.

"Commander, we have all the readings we can get. We should return to the _Swiftfire_ now."

"About time. So do you know how to close this tear?"

"I think so but I need to run by the Captain first."

Commander Core nodded.

"Core to _Swiftfire_, we are heading back to the docking bay. I think we have a breakthrough."

"Excellent. The shuttle is on its way."

The landing party gathered their gear and headed for the docking bay. The Docking bay was the name the party had given to a hole in the side of the battle cruiser where the shuttle had dropped them off. In the battle with the Klingons that ship had taken serious damage and it had hull breaches all over it. By the time they reached the docking bay the shuttle was there waiting for them. Once they were onboard the shuttle headed for the _Swiftfire_.

Susan removed her helmet and took a seat next to the pilot. As she looked out she saw several of the Starfleet ships spread out manoeuvring around the various ships. As she watched she saw one of the ships launch several torpedoes.

"Are they firing?" asked Susan.

"Yes, Commander," replied the pilot. "The Vice Admiral feels that we are going to close that subspace tear and has ordered all ships to go and fire weapons at the Dominion ships. So when the battle returns to normal space-time the Dominion fleet's tactical advantage will be no more. See the USS _Perry_ and USS _Phar Lap_? They are setting up so that their torpedoes and Phasers will damage and destroy the centre column of the Dominion Fleet. When the Klingons return to normal they will have a hole to blast through and easily get out of the pincer. The other ships are weakening the Dominion's flank. Once the battle restarts it should be over quickly with the minimal loss of life. At least on our side, hopefully there will be huge losses of Jem'Hadar ships and soldiers. We've identified the enemy ships; they are from the Jem'Hadar Thirteenth Division."

That was the division that had forced them to retreat from Sector 432 recently. She looked forward to repaying them. She could visualise the enemy ships exploding before her and it brought a smile to her face. "Yes, that would be nice."

Once back on the _Swiftfire_ Lieutenant Letac and Commander Core went to the Observation Lounge off the Bridge where Captain Masters was waiting.

"What do you have to report?" asked the Captain.

"The subspace tear is boring. I am petitioning that we go and find a more exciting one that is swarming with unknown ships that outgun us a million to one," said Susan.

"Petition noted. Now Lieutenant what do you have to say?"

"Despite what the Commander says the tear is fascinating! I don't quite understand how it works but it is amazing."

"What caused it?"

"From what I can tell it was the effect of a subspace weapon detonating with a quantity of ketracel white. This is the part I don't understand, it doesn't seem possible that the white caused it, it might all be just a one off thing. The Son'a ship had several other Subspace weapons that might have gone off as well. It is very hard to tell. Of course I could be wrong. But this is probably a one in a zillion chance of this happening. Subspace weapons are unpredictable, they can rip a hole in subspace, they can even strengthen subspace or they might act like a normal weapon and just explode. The only way for this to happen again is if there are exactly the same circumstances. It is also likely that the energy of the Klingon disruptor helped but I can't be sure of any of this."

"What are the Son'a doing with white?" Susan asked. "Are they trading it with the Jem'Hadar?"

"I doubt it. Given the needs of the Dominion the Son'a ships here capacity would be a drop in the ocean. Hardly worth the Dominion's time. There is the possibility that the Son'a are purchasing the drug from the Dominion."

"Why?"

"From the files I've read the Son'a aren't exactly the nicest people around. They have conquered lesser developed races in the past and the fact they carry subspace weapons is also not a good sign. They are very interested in medical science, particularly in prolonging life. Maybe they see some applications for the drug in that way."

"Maybe they just want their own army of drug dependant super-soldiers," said Susan.

"Maybe, I'll leave it to Intelligence to figure that one out. Now, can we close or collapse this tear?"

"Yes. All it will take is an anti-matter blast."

"Is that all?" asked Jonathan surprised. "I get a torpedo loaded onto a shuttle and we'll transport it there straight away."

"It's not that simple, sir," said Terri looking a bit uneasy. "We can make it so the torpedo is shielded so it isn't affected by the tear but once it explodes it will destroy its shields. The explosion will then became static and not do anything. The same would happen if we put an individual shield generator there it would be destroyed without the torpedo doing its mission."

"If we can't use a torpedo that how do we close the tear," asked Susan.

Jonathan looked at Susan confused.

"Don't you know the plan? You were in charge of the landing party."

"I was in charge?" said Susan surprised. "I thought Terri was in charge, she is a Lieutenant."

"But you are a Commander. You outrank her," said Jonathan.

"Really? In that case, Lieutenant, fetch me my slippers. You there, fetch me a glass of scotch."

"I'm a Captain. I outrank all of you."

"Damn, I really wanted that drink."

Jonathan put his hand over his eyes as Susan burst out laughing. Even Letac couldn't hide her smile.

"Next time I'm going to ask for my First Officer to not come straight out of a mental institution."

Terri was still struggling to compose herself but her continued.

"A torpedo won't work. But we can create the same effect and focus it into a beam; making it a lot more effective. We have the equipment onboard for this device. I can have the machine ready to go in minutes."

"Great I'll meet you in the shuttlebay," said Jonathan.

"You're going?" asked Susan.

"I want to have a close look at this tear. I've never seen one up close and since you were bored senseless on your last visit you can stay and run the ship."

"Do I get to go around firing torpedoes and phasers?" asked Susan excitedly.

"No. We have already done all that we need to. The _Swiftfire_ will stay close in case something goes wrong."

"Here's hoping!" said Susan jovially.

Jonathan just shook his head.


	9. Chapter 8

"It's amazing!" said Jonathan as he stared at the subspace tear. "It's so still, so calming. No wonder Susan hated it."

Captain Masters, Lieutenant Letac, Doctor Murphy and two other officers were on the Son'a ship. Terri and the two officers were fiddling with the device that would close the tear while Dr Murphy watched.

"I wouldn't stand so close to it or you're going to be blasted by the anti-matter beam."

Jonathan nodded and took his chief medical officer's advice and stepped back. As he turned he saw Lieutenant Letac stumble.

"Are you okay, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah," came Terri's shaky reply. "I'm just having problems focusing on…I think I'm going to be sick!"

Terri dropped to her knees and grasped her stomach. She coughed and choked as she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down. Terri quickly pressed several buttons on her wrist. A tub appeared in her helmet and she tilted her head so that it covered her mouth. Then she vomited. Terri rocked forward with each contraction of her stomach muscles. When Terri finished she just sat there trying to breathe. She hit another button on her wrist and a smaller tube appeared, she took the tube into her mouth and sucked. A stream of water came into her mouth. She sloshed it in her mouth and then spat it into the tube she had vomited into. She retracted the tube and tried to get up.

"No, don't get up. Let me run a scan."

Doctor Carol Murphy scanned Terri with her Medical Tricorder. She examined the reading.

"Looks like there are some bad effects of exposure to this tear. The injections I gave you for the radiation is not coping. She needs to return to the _Swiftfire_ right now."

"But we need her to finish setting up the anti-matter beam!" said the Captain.

"If she stays she could die. She needs to go back to the _Swiftfire_."

"Lieutenant Letac, can anyone each do this?"

"No," replied Terri. "Wait. Lt. Commander Celcho could do it. But he is injured."

"That's right; he can't come here and do it. Is he conscious?

"No, but we can wake him."

"Good. I want him to guide me through getting this thing running."

Carol nodded and contacted the _Swiftfire_ to get Pavlo awake.

"You two," said Carol as she pointed to the two officers who had been helping Terri. "Take the Lieutenant to the Docking bay and back to the _Swiftfire_. My staff will take her from there."

The two officers each got under one of Terri's arms and helped her stand. They started to head off for the Docking bay.

"You should head off too, Carol."

"And leave you alone? Not a chance. I need to monitor you."

"But you have been exposed longer than me. You could lose it."

"I'll hang back as far as I can and still monitor you. It should mean I could stay longer."

The Captain and Doctor's conversation was interrupted by a transmission from the _Swiftfire_.

"_Captain,"_ came a weak voice. _"This is Lt. Commander Celcho reporting for duty._"

"It's good to have you back, Lt. Commander. Do you know the situation?"

"_Not really. All I know is that you need my help."_

Jonathan explained the whole situation to Pavlo.

"So do you think you can help?" asked Jonathan.

"_Probably. Can you get me a tricorder?" _asked Pavlo to someone Jonathan couldn't see or hear. _"I just need to run a few numbers through the computer. I think I see what Lieutenant Letac was trying to do. It is an innovated way to do it, not the simplest, but it will work. Thank you."_

Pavlo went quiet as he did some calculations.

"_Okay. I think I've got it. Is the top left panel on the unit open?"_

"Yes. I can see a few chips and green, red, orange wires and a small rounded black unit."

"_Good. You need to swap the power flow regulator from junction A to C. Take out the orange wire and move it two spots down. Now take out the two bottom left chips. Take the third right chip and put it in the bottom left slot. Put the second bottom left chip into the open right slot. A couple of lights should come on. Now I'm going to send some info to your tricorder. Scan the remaining chip and replace the command function line with what I sent you. Put it back in. Do you have power?"_

"She's humming," replied Jonathan. "What do I set this to?"

"_There is no need. The code I sent had all the information necessary. All you have to do is press the activate button and get out of the way you'll have ten seconds._"

"Here goes nothing."

Jonathan hit the activate button and ran for cover. He ducked around a corner where Dr. Murphy had been.

Jonathan counted down but when he got to zero nothing seemed to happen. So he took a look around the corner and saw that the device hadn't fired.

"Did it work?" asked Carol.

"I don't think so. Unless the beam it fired is not visible to the human eye. Lt. Commander Celcho, nothing happened."

"_It should have worked! Go and check the random oscillating frequency unit. It's designed to stop any energy spikes from altering the frequency of the beam and to keep the beam on the selected frequency. If it's too sensitive it might not be letting the beam even fire but if it's not sensitive enough the beam won't be able to negate the effects of the tear. It is located at the rear of the device. Once you open the panel you'll see it."_

Jonathan went up to the device and immediately saw the problem.

"Looks like we have a power problem. Its shields are down and it has just started to fire. It must not have the power to fire and keep shields so it dropped them. It is stuck in time."

"Can you extend your temporal shield around the device? If you can the unit should continue to fire."

"_But what about the beam? I doubt my shields can cover it all the way to the tear."_

"_As long as the random oscillating frequency unit is set right it won't matter. If it's not you'll have to fix it, which is bloody complicated."_

Jonathan started to adjust the settings on this wristband, which controlled the shields. The device hummed back to life as the temporal shields engulfed it. A red beam lanced out of the device and hit the Subspace tear. When it did the Son'a ship shook.

"We have movement here!" called Jonathan.

"_It's working then. The tear should destabilise, probably it will take the Son'a ship with it. You have a few minutes to get out there. Shut down the device, it has done its job."_

Jonathan punched in the shut down code into the devices operating panel. Instead of shutting down arcs of blue lightning came from the subspace tear they travelled down the beam and onto the device and into Jonathan who was close by. The energy threw Jonathan away from the device and sent him into a wall.

"Captain!" yelled Carol.

"_What happened? What's going on? Captain?"_ came the worried voice of Pavlo over Carol's communication system.

Carol took a step closer and fell to one knee in pain. It felt like someone had hit her in the stomach with a nine iron. A quick scan showed Carol what she feared. The tear was emitting more intense radiation and it had accelerated the effects on her. She got back to her feet and stumbled to where Jonathan lay. Jonathan was limp and his eyes were closed but he appeared to be breathing.

"_Doctor? Captain? Can you hear me?"_

"Pavlo, this is Carol. The Captain is unconscious but other than that he is stable."

"_I was starting to worry. Is the device off?"_

"No."

"_Oh no! Get out of there Doctor! The tear is going to destabilise too quickly and explode."_

"Great it only gets better. I've got a rhino and an elephant dancing in my stomach and now I have to carry a man who is twice my size away from an unstable subspace tear, which wants to blow up," said Carol to herself.

Carol struggled to get Jonathan to his feet.

"I think I'm going to suggest you go on a diet, Captain," said Carol to the unconscious Captain.

Carol struggled under Jonathan's weight as she walked away from the tear. She hadn't got far when the ship shook again, causing Carol to drop Jonathan.

"Oops! Sorry Captain."

Carol again picked up Jonathan only to have the ship shake again and end up hunched over with Jonathan slumped over her. Carol looked back at the subspace tear and saw it pulse, sending a force towards them that threw everything out of its way.

With all her might Carol pushed up, throwing Jonathan off her and around the corner and down a corridor just before the force wave hit her. Carol was already back on the ground when it reached her and all the force wave did was sent her rolling into a wall.

"I'm a Doctor not a crash test dummy," moaned Carol as she stood back up. As she raised her head she saw a blue bubble extending down the corridor. Carol raised her hands in front of her face, as it was about to hit her. The blue wave passed right through her, giving her a light tingly feeling all over. Carol moved her arms back down; nothing seemed to be wrong with her so she ran to where the Captain lay. The ship shook again and so violently that the walls and floors buckled. Carol tripped over and landed face first on the ground, cracking the helmets faceplate.

Carol crawled up to Jonathan and saw that he was still alive. Carol swung her head around as there was a loud noise behind her. From around the corner came a ball of fire.

"You have got to be kidding!" exclaimed Carol.

As the fireball closed in Carol felt the intense heat and was prepare to be cooked when she heard the familiar hum and felt the cold touch of a Transporter beam. Carol rematerialised on a transporter pad on the Swiftfire. She stood up and looked around. Medical officers were already helping the Captain, one came up to her but she waved her away.

"Just deal with the Captain. I can fix any damage I have."

Carol stepped off the pad and unclamped the bulky helmet unit. She lifted it off and put her hand to her head. She brought down her hand and saw it had blood on it, just as she thought. She must have done it when she cracked the faceplate. Carol looked up and saw that everyone was looking at her.

"It's okay. It is just a little cut," explained Carol.

"I think you should have a look in a mirror," said an Ensign.

Carol looked confused but headed to a wall console. She set it to display a shot of her face. When it did Carol recoiled in shock. She ran her fingers over her face, confirming that what she was seeing was real.

"Oh my God!"


	10. Chapter 9

"_Commander, this is Lt. Commander Celcho, I think the Doc and Captain might be in trouble!"_

"What?" asked Susan.

Susan had been sitting on the Bridge in the Captain's chair watching as the other ships made final preparations for the subspace tear to be collapsed.

"_I heard a lot of commotion and yelling. But I can't get a response from either of them."_

"The destabilising of the tear might have increased the interference. We'll close the distance between us and the Son'a ship and see if that fixes it. Helm, close on the Son'a battle cruiser."

"Commander, I'm back in contact with the Doctor. The Captain is injured."

"Great, I go down nothing happens. The Captain goes down and he manages to get unconscious. Tell them we will have a shuttle down there in no time."

"There isn't enough time. It's all hit the fan, Commander. The tear is destabilising too quickly."

"Tactical, see if you can lock a transporter beam on them!"

"I can't lock on them."

The _Swiftfire_ shook.

"Commander, the tear has destabilised. I'm detecting fluxes in the space-time continuum. It's all localised around the tear. Space-time is returning to normal and then stopping," reported the Science officer who had taken Terri's place while she was on the ship and now in sickbay.

"Are we in any danger?"

"No, the shields are holding. But the team on the Son'a ship are in trouble. The ship will rip itself apart in a minute or so."

"Lieutenant," said Susan to the Karak. "See if you can time the transporters to beam the Captain and Doctor out of there when space-time fluctuates back to normal time."

Susan watched as the subspace tear pulsated. The hull around the tear buckled and then blew out into space. Flames leaped out and then paused and then continued as they came in and out of normal space-time. Then there were several more substantial explosions.

"I have successful beamed the Captain and Doctor off the vessel," reported Karak.

"Excellent work! Helm, full reverse! Full power to forward shields!"

The _Swiftfire_ began to backtrack as the Son'a ship ripped apart. The Son'a vessel exploded, throwing debris in all directions. The debris impacted harmlessly on the _Swiftfire's_ forward shields.

The tear was exposed for all to see. It was varying in size, sending out disturbances in the gravitational forces in a small area. Then the tear collapsed sending out a large pulse that shook all the Starfleet ships. As it travelled out it returned the areas it travelled through to normal.

"Space is back to normal, Commander!" cried the Science officer.

A torpedo flashed past the front of the _Swiftfire_ and hit a Dominion attack ship destroying it.

"We're in the middle of a battle zone! Keep reversing until we are clear and then hold position and get ready to support the Klingons."

* * *

Phased polaron beams, disruptors and phaser fire lanced around the _Swiftfire_. Dominion and Klingon ships made last ditch manoeuvres to stop from smashing into the _Swiftfire_ that to them appeared out of nowhere. But the battle was already won. As soon as space returned to normal the torpedoes and phaser fire that the Starfleet ships had set up came to life and slashed into the Dominion lines. Dozens of Dominion ships were on fire or destroyed. Attack ships were vaporised from nowhere. Battle cruisers had multiple hull breaches and were struggling to stay alive. The Dominions flanking manoeuvre disintegrated in a hail of Starfleet phaser and torpedo fire. The Dominion centre formation found itself suddenly weakened and unable to stop the Klingon fleet from blasting its way cleanly through. The Klingon fleet looped back and struck at the confused and weakened Dominion fleet. Birds of Prey slashed across damaged and burning battle cruisers and strike cruisers, showering them in disruptor and torpedo fire. The attack ships suddenly without their heavy hitters and coordinators found themselves lost. Large Klingon cruisers drove into the battle firing there impressive array of weaponry. They slaughtered the attack ships. The Dominion fleet started to regroup and fight back but it was too little too late, the Klingons had the advantage and were pushing hard. After a few extremely bloody minutes the Dominion fleet broke off and started to retreat. The Klingons started to pursue the fleeing Dominion ships.

"_General G'tor, let them go,"_ came Vice Admiral Brand's voice over the communications channel.

That came as a shock to Susan. She had not known who was in charge of the Klingon fleet until then. She thought it was lucky Jonathan was not on the bridge at the moment. The _Swiftfire_ and G'tor had been involved in the unpleasant destruction of the USS _Fury_ that had cost the life of one of Jonathan's close friends. She didn't doubt that when Jonathan found out that the idea of letting the Klingons meet their fate wouldn't cross his mind.

"_I will not! We have smashed the Dominion Fleet we will chase them to Cardassia Prime!"_

"You were lucky. If we hadn't intervened you would have lost your fleet."

"_How dare you!"_

"_Aren't you wondering why the Dominion's flanking manoeuvre was destroyed? Or why their centre line was weakened? Or where several Starfleet starships appeared from and how one appeared in the middle of your formation?"_

"_Obviously a cloaking system allowed you to sneak up."_

"_Then how did all those torpedoes and Phaser fire appear when all of my ships were nowhere near their firing point?"_

"_Some sort of new cloaked weapon."_

"_No. Your sensor will have records of a subspace disturbance that has now disappeared and you should note that it has been several hours since you started this battle. You have had a small temporal incident. I will brief on the way back to Guyra. Your fleet needs repairs and the Dominion fleet has already sent for reinforcements."_

The Klingon made a low growling noise. No doubt just checking to confirm Brand's story.

"_Fine, Starfleet. We will head back but let it be known that this was a victory for the Klingon Empire!"_

"_Hopefully it will be the first of many, General. All Starfleet vessels are to stand down and await further orders."_

"We beat them!" said Frank excitedly. "We sent the Jem'Hadar running!"

Susan couldn't help but feel the young officer's excitement. It was somewhat diminished by the fact that this victory would probably mean little in the grand scheme of things. There was a lot more fighting to come.

"Good work," she said to the crew. No point not getting something out of the mission. "We did some good work."

* * *

Susan entered the Sickbay and asked the Nurse Wood where the Captain was. The nurse directed her to one of the recovery rooms. Susan walked into the room preparing herself for the worse, she had heard the Captain had been injured and had been exposed to radiation during the mission. Jonathan was sitting up in the bed looking in a handheld mirror, he looked fine, in fact he looked better than fine.

"Jonathan, I'm glad to see you're okay."

He put down the mirror and smiled at her. "I'm better then fine, Susan. I'm younger."

She gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I don't understand all the technobabble myself so I'll try my best. When the subspace tear was close to collapse it released a large concentration of metaphasic radiation or something like that. I didn't come in direct contact with it but I got the leakage of it. The metaphasic particles were of the right concentration that they managed to make me younger, nothing drastic only a few years but it's all pretty crazy. A freak subspace pulse and I'm younger."

"I don't believe it!" Susan had a huge smile on her face as she heard the story.

"You should see Doctor Murphy. She was in the path of the radiation so she got a large dose or more intense concentration and was not so lucky…wait I mean she was more lucky. She looks amazing; it has taken 20 – 30 years off her."

Susan's jaw dropped.

"She's younger? Amazing! Is there any bad after effects of her regression."

"No. It also improved her memory and motor functions; she is better physically and mentally then before. So how did everything end up with the Klingons?"

"Seventeen ships destroyed or had to be scuttled. Thirteen are getting tractored out. We took out over fifty Jem'Hadar ships and the collapse of the subspace tear destroyed all six Son'a vessels. A bit of revenge for Sector 432, we identified the Jem'Hadar ships as from the Thirteenth Division."

"That's good to hear."

Susan looked at Jonathan and shook her head. "I can't believe it! I go down and the tear tries to bore me to death. You go down and you get younger. This universe is so unfair."

"I know," said a mournful Jonathan. "You could really use a couple of years taken off you."

Susan's eyes darted up.

"Do you want me to extend your time in Sickbay by a couple of months?"

Jonathan laughed. It hadn't turn out a bad patrol. They had destroyed several Dominion ships, saved the Klingon fleet and he and the Doctor now looked much younger. Not a bad day at the office.


	11. Epilogue

Deep in the Moon base orbiting Guyra IV a Starfleet Engineering team forced open a door that had been shut for thousands of years.

Beams of light pieced the dark as the Engineers scanned the room. One of the Engineers approached a working console. The Engineer slowly inputted his commands. Suddenly the whole room lit up and consoles hummed to life. A dozen more Engineers came in and started scanning and operating consoles.

"Jesus! Chief, take a look at this!" called one of the Engineers.

A Chief Petty officer came over to the calling Engineer and took a look at what the Engineer was so excited about.

"I don't believe my eyes! Is this what it looks like?"

"It's a propulsion system. This moon has a propulsion system!" exclaimed the still excited Engineer.

The Chief Petty officer took a closer look at the system.

"From what I can make out, it can adjust the moons orbit and move it around the planet. These have to be the most powerful engines in known space. They could advance our Engine Technology by leaps and bounds! Call the Admiral, tell him about this."

The Stations intercom chirped indicating it was activated.

"_All Engineering officers are to report to the docking facility. We have numerous heavily damaged Klingon vessels arriving."_

"Damn, I want more time to have a look at this. You heard him, get to the Docking bay. I want this area locked down. No one gets in without Sigma Level 7 clearance. I'll see if I can get some Security down here."

Soon the room was empty. Out of one of the ceiling vents a thick gold liquid seeped into the room. It formed a puddle in the middle of the room and started to form up into a column. It made a roughly humanoid form before it formed features. It appeared as a Starfleet Engineer. The "Engineer" went up to a console and connected a small device to it. On the console's monitor appeared the female Changeling.

"_What do you have to report?"_ asked the Female Changeling.

"All goes as planned. No one has noticed that I have replaced Ensign Muir. I have made some important findings, some that will guarantee our victory in this sector."

"_Excellent. This Starfleet fleet has been able to evade us and escape serious losses at our hands. It is time to remind them who is the true power in this quadrant."_


End file.
